April 2008

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Nothing earthshattering, but an Boolify is interesting little site that might help some conceptualize the concept of boolean operators.

Librarians, teachers and parents have told us how hard it is for students to understand web searching. Boolify makes it easier to for students to understand their web search by illustrating the logic of their search, and by showing them how each change to their search instantly changes their results. ...Its primary audience is Elementary and Middle School children, but it may find relevance with others. Ultimately, its goal is to increase learners’ ability to perform effective web searches.

Might be cool to hack it (or ask them) to use it to search a basic library database...

Friday, April 25, 2008

Dan Sich at the University of Western Ontario posts an update that shows how Hab.la is responding to user suggestions and now has a solution for the previously-reported cap of 5 simultaneous users. They've even got a page on Hab.la for Libraries! If you haven't yet implemented chat widgets on your site, this is definitely one to consider. I haven't played yet, but it may even be worth switching to from MeeboMe. Anyone else considering that?

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Danielle Dennie at Concordia University asks for your assistance in a survey she's running on your use of Instant Messaging Widgets:

Dear all,

I will be conducting a study to learn about and compare usage of IM widgets on online subject/research guides from different North American academic libraries. I would like to see the types of users that use IM widgets on a librarians subject guide and the type of questions that are asked. The survey is short (it should take no longer than 5 minutes to complete). Here is the link to the survey:

Monday, April 21, 2008

This is interesting, at least to those of us who are using Relais for our Document Delivery system:

For Immediate Release April 22, 2008Relais products go Open Source

Relais International is excited to announce that we will be moving all or part of the Relais software to an open source model.

Why are we doing this?Open source software has been a buzzword in the library community for several years now. There’s no doubt: open source is exciting. But many still don’t understand why.

ReliabilityOpen source software is peer-reviewed. It is exposed to extreme scrutiny, with problems being found and fixed instead of kept secret until the wrong person discovers them. This peer-review process results in a code base that’s more reliable than closed proprietary software. Mature open source software is as bulletproof as software ever gets.

SecurityWith proprietary software, source code is “closed,” and support and future development of the product rely on the success and resources of a single vendor.

In contrast, open source solutions rely on stable code bases developed and supported by many providers worldwide. As a result, libraries using open source products typically have more support options than those using proprietary software.

User DrivenProprietary software vendors must focus on providing functionality improvements that meet the needs of the majority of their customers in a large and diverse market.

In contrast, open source software features emerge from the community of users that have paid for or developed and contributed them. This makes open source software user-driven--you decide what features are important and deserve attention rather than a vendor.

InnovationWhen the code is open, users are free to innovate and improve the software to meet their needs. They can accomplish this either by joining the development process directly, or by using companies such as Relais International to develop their ideas. Free innovation also means that open source software has much faster development cycles when compared to proprietary

What are the implications for our customers?Relais International will review all existing contracts and agreements; we will then provide customers with options for converting to a service agreement that incorporates support, maintenance and custom development.

Our aim is to make this transition with minimal impact to our existing customers with the exception of providing more options and flexibility for those customers who are interested in adding to and modifying Relais as you work to address the needs of your user community.

When will this happen?The first modules to be moved to an open source model will be available before October 1, 2008.

There are a number of key decisions to be made as this process moves forward, including the selection of an appropriate license under which the Relais software (or part of the Relais software) will be available. We will keep all customers informed of our progress and invite your comments and suggestions.

“We are fully dedicated to Relais, the company and the product” says Clare MacKeigan, Chief Operating Officer of Relais International. “Our customers are the basis for our success to date and we want this to continue. We anticipate that this decision will result in an even stronger more vibrant user community. Each of our customers brings a unique perspective to the table, and by giving more options to capitalize on this we know that all of our customers will benefit.”

Friday, April 18, 2008

A few weeks ago I started using Digsby on my work machine to tie in all my IM, email accounts and Twitter. It seems quite stable, and I think it's a keeper. Major bonus that I haven't even explored yet is that just like Meebo, it offers a flash-based embeddable chat widget that then connects to the desktop application. I'm not sure how it shows up at my end, or if it has any limitations, so let's see, shall we? Feel free to pop in for a quick chat if I'm online...

Windows only for now, but they say they're working on a Mac and Linux version as well.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Still running Win2K at the office, so can't offer any personal experiences with this version of my favorite screencasting tool, but Techsmith has released an update to their current version of Camtasia Studio: version 5.1. As always, you can use it for a 30-day free trial.

Many many years ago I acquired a small digital voice recorder that soon became indispensable to me. It was a low-capacity Voice-it, and I think I had three over the years, each with more capacity than the last. For some reason VXI stopped making them, and now the VT-300 goes for a small fortune on eBay. What I loved about the Voice-it was how small it was; very easily fit in the pocket, and that it was instant-on - as soon as I had a thought worth remembering it was a quick press and automatically record. I could also listen w/o headphones or any other interface.

So when my last unit finally died I went looking for some sort of replacement and ended up with an iRiver IFP 790 which has an internal mic and accepts an external as well. It worked well, but was a little bulky for the pocket and not very intuitive, so I pretty quickly gave up on that.

I was intrigued enough when ThinkGeek listed a credit-card-sized digital voice recorder earlier this year to buy one, and it seems to fit squarely between my other two little brains. It's even a little smaller than the Voice-it, which is great, but it's still not quite instant on, and the controls are a little small and I'm never quite sure if it's recording or on standby. I have to hold it right up to my ear to hear through the speaker, and the headphone jack is a proprietary size, so I can't just use the phones I have with me for my iPod. It plugs in to the puter via USB to recharge and to transfer the WAV files, which are actually really clear; I'm pleased with that. All of the recordings show with the same recording date, which is also a little frustrating. So I'm carrying it and using it from time to time, but not as often as I did the Voice-it. I'm hoping that it becomes second nature to me again; it's really useful to me to quickly record those fleeting thoughts, especially during those creative periods when they start to flow. If anyone's curious about the unit, here's a scan of the one-page instruction sheet.

Here's how the units compare size-wise:

Right after I bought the little white one (which really is the size of about 3 credit cards stacked up) I read about this Olympus unit, but when I checked it out in a store it's still too bulky for the pocket.

I suppose if I had a cell phone that had a quick voice record feature that'd work for me, but does anyone else have any other recommendations?

Abstract This paper aims to investigate whether academic reference librarians, archivists, catalogers, distance education librarians, public librarians, records managers, school librarians, special collections librarians, and systems librarians differ in personality traits measured by the Personal Style Inventory: i.e. adaptability, assertiveness, autonomy, conscientiousness, customer service orientation, emotional resilience, extraversion, openness, optimism, teamwork, tough-mindedness, visionary/operational work style, and work drive. It also aims to investigate whether personality traits of those in person-oriented library specialties differ from those in technique-oriented (technical) library specialties. Design/methodology/approach - A total of 2,075 librarians/information professionals were surveyed in non-random sample. The Personal Style Inventory is a normal personality inventory assessing important traits for the world of work. It was used in a two-step cluster analysis for the data analysis. Findings - The paper finds that distinct personality traits were associated with the different types of librarians. There was also a "unadaptive" cluster composed of individuals from all specialties. There were distinguishing traits associated with person-oriented and technique-oriented specialties. Research limitations/implications - Results were not generalizable due to the non-random sample. Gender was not collected. The research has implications for career counseling. Originality/value - There have been few studies of personality traits in library specialties, none measuring both narrow work trait and broad personality trait variables.

Abstract: The provision of equitable library services to distance learning students emerged as a critical area during the 1990s. Library services available to distance learning students included digital reference and instructional services, remote access to online research tools, database and research tutorials, interlibrary loan, and document delivery. Digital reference services appeared to be one of the more significant services proffered by academic libraries although these services were developed often without forethought to goals and assessment. Previous studies evaluated traditional and telephone reference service; however, the literature lacked studies addressing asynchronous digital reference service.

Abstract: The increasing use of problem-based learning in higher education affords librarians new avenues for promoting the development of information literacy skills among students. Information literacy instruction supports problem-based learning activities by providing students with skills to locate relevant resources for developing solutions to these exercises. The author created three WebQuests (together with tutorials) aimed at promoting faculty-librarian partnerships to deliver information literacy instruction through a problem-based learning approach in the context of course work in a distance learning environment. These problem-based learning WebQuests can be adapted to various disciplines as well as to traditional learning environments. Lastly, these WebQuests promote the development of information literacy skills in students as well as increase their exposure to problem-based learning.

Abstract: Jacksonville State University's (JSU) Houston Cole (HCL) Library has always provided access to required course readings through a reserve system. In the past, this service was only available in print. Now, as JSU's programs move to the online arena, the Library is making its presence felt strongly in this new online environment. Along with providing access to required course readings through an electronic reserve system, Docutek's ERes, HCL also offers faculty the option of using their course-management software, such as Blackboard, to deliver the e-reserves to their students. This article details the technical implications of adding reserves to Blackboard courses.

Students who took the hybrid class earned, on average, a letter grade higher than students in the traditional class. A report of Mr. McFarlin’s findings, collected over the course of six semesters, was published in Advances in Physiology Education.

Saturday, April 05, 2008

The Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health has reversed itself and will no longer block searches for the term “abortion” in its popular public health database Popline. Searches for the word had been blocked because of concerns over federal financing.

Friday, April 04, 2008

Holy crap! Article from The Chronicle of Higher Ed describing how the word 'abortion' is now a stopword in the Popline database. Meaning you can't search for it. That's insane! oooh, except if you go now, you CAN search on that word. Yay for the interwebs!

I'm about halfway through another excellent Interview with Innovators podcast with Jon Udell interviewing Tim Spalding, founder of LibraryThing. The title comes from a throwaway comment Tim made about why people care to tag books, but why they don't tag so much at Amazon. I've never heard Jon laugh like that before :-) I don't use LibraryThing 'cause I don't tend to actually buy a lot of books, but I think I may have to give it another go, even if it's just to generate recommendations on what to read next. A good interview, give it a listen.

Earlier this week, Dr. Michael Geist spoke here at the University of Calgary, on copyright, of course. The title of his talk was Why Copyright? and was a discussion of both why copyright is a hot topic in Canada right now, and why it should be a hot topic. With his permission, I recorded the talk using the same setup I did for the Prentice video, and here it is.

You can also download an mp3 of the talk, which is actually what I'd recommend. There's really not anything vitally important visually in the talk, and my "camerawork" was particularly bad with the lighting and the angle.